Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Buzzards Game Report # 1

Game: April 22, 2012

Buzzards bounced by Dragons in Folsom, 11-1

After three rain-outs the 2012 NABA season opener for the Ol' Buzzards was played at Lembi Field against the Dragons. The always tough green Dragons missed the playoffs last season, so the manger, Larry Whitmer, improved the team by adding some younger talent to this year's squad to bolster their chances.

The weather was a record setting 93 degrees and seemed hotter since cold and rainy winter was just last week. The adjacent fields were a buzz of activity as an over-60 softball tournament was in progress.

The Gold Country Buzzards opening day pitcher was the lanky right-hander, Mark "Weed" Fowler #11. The home team Dragons sent big young (46) righty, Jeff "High Kick" Hansen #11, to open the game on the mound.

The game opened encouragingly as the lead-off batter, Dave "Evy" Everingham knocked the 2-2 pitch into right field for a nice base hit. Taylor "Welzy" Welz followed with a 1-0 bunt up the third base line, beating the throw for an infield single and advancing Evy to second base. A fielder's choice by Dave "Keppie" Kephart put runners at the corners with one out. Bob "Woody" Wooden hit a grounder deep to the shortstop allowing Evy to score on the play at first base. The inning looked more promising in the beginning, but ended with just an early 1-0 Buzzard lead.

With the lousy weather for the past month, this game was like spring training and opening day combined for the team, so the play was often reflective of the long lay-off and rusty reactions on some plays. The Buzzard defense was not sharp and made the pitchers get more than 3-outs in too many innings.

The Dragons got off to a quick start with four runs in the bottom of the first inning - all unearned. They scored in six of the eight innings played, while the Buzzards could only muster an occasional scoring threat. The Dragons scored 11 runs on 13 hits with six walks and four errors.

The Buzzards scored the one run by scattering nine hits into seven of the eight innings and received just one walk. The three Dragon pitchers got 13 ground ball outs and a line-out double-play to shortstop in the fourth inning plus six K's to account for 21 of the 24 outs of this game. The Dragons played solid ball and won handily 11-1.

But the Buzzards had plenty of highlights to go around. The pitching was excellent. It was the lack of timely hitting and occasional sloppy defensive play that made the score one-sided. All four Buzzard pitchers had solid performances. Weed pitched the first five innings, Woody threw the sixth frame, and Welzy pitched the seventh inning and impressively struck-out the side. Southpaw Keppie then came in and pitched the eighth and final inning.

Buzzard game highlights include some defensive gems. Taylor’s over-the-shoulder catch to open the fourth inning in right-center field was fabulous. Evy’s tough catch at shortstop of a drifting pop-up that required hitting the dirt to catch it, to end the third with runners going, was top notch and was similar to Mike “Bake” Baker’s outstanding hit-the-dirt catch at third base in the fifth inning. Nice catches guys. Scott “Donut” Reeves was solid behind the plate thru six innings and kept the runners on their toes with good throws behind any wandering runners and nailing a would-be stealer in the fifth for the first out and later nailing a runner at third base to end the inning. Also, Fowler’s pick-off move to first base was a menace to runners and he added a notch to his belt with a nice pick-off in the third inning.

The banjo offense of nine singles was provided by Evy and Welzy with two hits each, while Keppie, Bake, Don “Redondo” Colbert, Ray “Bull Dog” Henry, and the new guy Terry “Caveman” Kelley each got base hits. Redondo got the only base on balls in the sixth. Buzzard speed was on display with four successful stealing attempts: Welzy got two; Evy one and Redondo had the other stolen base.

It felt good to get together again on the field. The Gold Country Ol’ Buzzards will tighten up the defense and bring their hittin’ sticks next time. And the next time is this Sunday. The Buzzards play the Mudville Nine in a double-header at James Field this Sunday, April 29. First game starts at 10 o’clock. The M-9s beat the Free Agents 13-6 on Sunday.

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #15

Game: August 7, 2011

Buzzards Pound Dodgers, 11-0

Sunday, August 7th, was another Buzzard gathering day at James Field in Auburn. The 2 pm NABA game featured two top teams from the 45+ AA and A divisions. The Gold Country Ol' Buzzards are in second place in the double-A group with a 10-4-1 record, while the Rancho Cordova Dodgers are in first place in the single-A division at 10-4-1. The Dodgers are one of the four young teams to join the 45+ 'old man' division this year. Most of this team is barely over 45 with several players under the age limit as grandfathered players from last year's 38+ RC Dodgers team. They have been moaning that the single-A division is too easy. Before the game they were pretty sassy about their team's skill level and were anxious to put it to the old guys.

A scheduling quirk, due to the five rain-outs earlier this season, caused the Dodgers to play a split double-header on Sunday. They played the Free Agents in a 9 o'clock game at Peterson Field in Rancho Cordova, losing against Donnie Rogers 1-0.

On a warm, mid-80's afternoon, just perfect for day baseball in the Sierra foothills, the Dodgers showed up with 17 young eager players dressed out in blue jerseys and white pants ready to take on a smaller crew of 11 Ol' Buzzards for this game. Going to the mound for the RC Dodgers was strong right-hander, Chris Glick #30. The Buzzards sent bulging biceps, Bob 'Woody' Wooden #22 to the hill to start the game.

For the first two innings, both pitchers held the teams scoreless. Good Ol' Buzzard defense in the top of the first was shown with a smooth 6-4-3 double play to end the inning and made Woody's job easier. The grounder was to Dave 'Evy' Everingham's left. He fielded the ball and tossed it to Dennis 'Little Ball of Hate' Viegas for a quick turn at second and strong throw to Charles 'CJ' Jackson at first base. Sweet play to end the first frame for the Dodgers.

The Ol' Buzzards jumped on the scoreboard in the third with a nice crooked number - 4 - to take the lead. Bake led-off with a base on balls. Dan 'Wookie' Wukmir took first base running for Mike. Next, batting left-handed, Scott 'Donut' Reeves, hit a flare to left field for a single putting runners at first and second. One out later, Ray 'Bull Dog' Henry took one for the team when he was hit squarely on the right butt cheek by a wild fast ball. Ray later said he didn't feel the pitch with all that butt cheek to absorb the hit. It left a small bruise as a reminder of the encounter with the wild pitch. Bull Dog took first base to load 'em up for LBH. Dennis sent the 1-1 pitch on a line into center field for a two-run single scoring Wook and Donut.

Batting next, Evy bounced one deep to the second baseman who had to hurry his throw to first. The throw was high and Evy was safe to re-load the bases. Taylor 'Welzy' Welz hit the first pitch to left-center field for a single driving in Bull Dog and LBH. Woody followed with a single to center, but the inning ended two batters later with the score 4-0.

The Buzzards scored again in the bottom half of the fifth inning. Ol' Bull Dog, one of the last remaining original Buzzards, batting left-handed, singled sharply to left field. Magazine cover boy, Dennis V, followed with a base hit to right field putting runners at first and third. Batting next, Evy knocked a 1-2 pitch for a base hit to right field scoring Ray. With runners at first and third, Evy took off for second base, stopping mid-way to draw a throw, and then got himself into a pickle between second and first, as Cover Boy easily scored from third. Dave was eventually tagged out, after a long back-and-forth run down on a close play sliding back into first base.

Welzy followed with a walk and then stole second base. On the play at the bag, the field umpire old slim Jim, called Taylor 'safe', but gave the 'out' signal. The Dodger fans were confused, at first cheering and shooting off their noisy air horn, but later disappointed at the crazy call. We have seen Jim's work before, but that call and signal were a first for many Buzzards and others.

With Welzy now on second, Woody was walked to put two on. CJ then smashed a grounder to third that the fielder caught, but then threw wildly to second as he threw-out his arm and yelled out in pain. Two runs scored on the play with the game resuming after an injury time-out. Batting next, Tony 'Mongoose' Brashear then hit a sharp liner into center field for a run scoring single.

The Dodgers then changed pitchers and brought in lanky Joe Rivera #55. The hard throwing righty then proceeded to walk Wookie on four pitches. Bake followed with a fielder's choice grounder that was hit to the shortstop. He ran to second base, but threw high to first with Wookie sliding hard into the bag. The play scored two runs leaving Bake on first. Donut continued the rally with a single to left-center field before the inning ended with six runs scored. The Buzzards were up 10-0 on the Dodgers after five innings of play.

Meanwhile, Woody continued to mow down these Dodgers in every inning. Their six hits were scattered in five of the innings for the shutout. Only three runners got to second base and only one Dodger reached third, and that was running threw it in the last inning on the way to being thrown out at the plate. The number of Dodger batters per inning is interesting and shows the dominance by Woody. 1st - 3, 2nd - 3, 3rd - 4, 4th - 3, 5th - 4, 6th - 5, 7th - 4. Wow.

The Buzzards scored once more in their last at-bats in the sixth inning. With one out, Cover Boy walked. Evy, batting next, on a full count hit a high looper into center field for another single. With two outs, Woody blasted a long double to the fence in left-center scoring Dennis and ending the scoring with 11 runs. Woody cut down the Dodgers in the top of the seventh inning and ended the game on the 10-run 'mercy rule'.

This was a nice, solid game with plenty of scoring to put away these young Dodger punks from Rancho in seven innings. Woody pitched a heck of a game and the defense played well. Wood man faced 26 batters throwing only 73 pitches (50 strikes & 23 balls) in the two hour and ten minute game. Bobio gave up six hits with one walk and two strike outs in the shut out.

The defense was tough including two throw-outs on the base path by Donut from behind the plate. One at third base with an excellent quick tag by Bake on a hard slide, into the bag and up his leg, in the third inning on a beautiful strike 'em out, throw 'em out to put a serious damper on an early Dodger rally. The second toss-out came in the fifth inning in nailing the lead-off runner at second base with the tag by LBH. The Dodgers would run no more on Scottie.

In the last inning with a runner at second and one out, a hit to left field looked deep enough to get a Dodger run home. Donnie 'Redondo' Colbert playing with a pulled groin muscle in left field, retrieved the ball and fired to Bake in the cut-off position near the mound. Mike took the throw and tossed a strike to Goose, playing catcher, to nail the runner in a slide at the plate to preserve the shut out.  Nice relay and terrific play. 

The infield defense caught all eight pop-ups in the sun (Evy-3 at shortstop, Bake-1 at third base, CJ-4 at first and in foul territory). Everingham also had a terrific out-stretched, back-handed snag of a screaming liner in the fourth inning. We played good sound baseball. A coach of the Dodgers late in the game in front of the dugout to his team, pointed at the Buzzards and said "that team plays good fundamental baseball, we need to play like that." A nice back-handed compliment that was over-heard at first.

The Buzzard offense got 13 hits in the six innings of at-bats with 12 of them coming in the last four digs. The hit club included Bull Dog, Goose, Welzy and Wookie with one hit each. Cover Boy, Donut and Woody with two hits and Evy had three hits including a double. The RBI's were knocked in by Bake-2, CJ-2, Cover Boy-2, Evy-1, Goose-1, Woody-1, and Welzy-2. Good job Buzzards. The season record is now 11-4-1 with three games left in the regular season.

Buzzard Note #1: Next Sunday is double-header day at James Field. The 10 o'clock against the Free Agents and 2 o'clock versus the Bulldogs. Both games are scheduled for nine innings.

Buzzard Note #2: This upcoming Sunday will be the last home games of the year. So, one more time, we will have smoked meat after the last game. We will gather in the parking lot, north-east corner, under the trees. We will set-up a table with sliced tri-tip and buns with potato salad, chips and cold drinks. The smoked tri-tip is courtesy of local radio personality, Tony B, for his higher than expected radio ratings for the KAHI broadcast game on July 24th. Should be a nice Buzzard feast. Family and friends are invited.

Buzzard Note #3: The last regular season game on August 21st is bumping into a regional Father-Son Tourney at McAuliffe Fields. The Buzzards are likely to be short-handed that day playing the first place Valley Cats. Uh oh. Buzzard Note #4: The mega-critical, single-elimination and first round play-off game will be August 28th. Mark your calendars.

 Buzzard Note #4: The mega-critical, single elimination and first round play-off game will be August 28th.  Mark your calendars.

Gold Country Ol’ Buzzards Game Report #13

Game: July 24, 2011

Buzzards beat down young Mudville Nine, 12-2

The Ol’ Buzzards had a lot planned for this Sunday. There were two nine inning games against different teams on the schedule with that second game starting later at 2:30. And that second game would be broadcast live on local radio station KAHI. Then a Gold Country Buzzard smoked bbq was at the end of the long day of baseball. The home games on this warm day in Auburn, in the low 90’s, with a gentle breeze were the right elixir to heal the wounds from last week’s cat scratchin’ in Elk Grove.

The first opponent was the Mudville Nine. A new, young team in the 45+ division that moved up to play with the older guys after lots of years in the 38+ division. The Mudville Nine is a long-time team of good ball players that showed up 16 strong at James Field by 9 o’clock in their distinctive dark red jersey-vests with black under-sleeves and white pants. The hats were black with a red bill and their custom logo. Their jersey’s had extra large numbers on their backs with a good looking olde-style font. The Mudville Nine (6-3-1) beat-up on the Astros 30-4 last Sunday and beat the Free Agents earlier in the season, so they were talking some stuff before the game and then some more stuff early in the game, until the Buzzards put it to ‘em.

The Mudville Nine was starting their strong righty, Ron ‘Pit Bull’ Garcia #22. The Buzzards sent their ace, southpaw Jim ‘Moxie’ Steiger #13 to the bump to start the game.

The Buzzards got off to a quick start and scored one run in their first at-bat. Dennis ‘Little Ball of Hate’ Viegas led off with a flare to right-center field for a single. MSBL Magazine Cover Boy Viegas stole second and then moved to third on a ground out. With one out, Taylor ‘Welzy’ Welz knocked in LBH with a line drive single to right field. Bob ‘Woody’ Wooden followed with a hard hit down the left field line and then Tony ‘Goose’ Brashear walked on five pitches to load the bases, but the inning ended with just the one run.

The Mudville Nine took the lead with two runs in the top of the second inning. A walk, three hits and one tough throwing error at the plate was enough for both runs. The Buzzards bounced right back with two runs in their half of the second inning. With one out, Dan ‘Wookie’ Wukmir walked on nine pitches, after fouling-off pitches in every direction. After a wild pitch moved Wookie to second, Scott ‘Donut’ Reeves hit a liner into left-center field for a hit, putting runners at first and third. Donut stole second on the first pitch, putting both runners in scoring position. Pete ‘Baron’ Von Zboray then worked a base on balls to load ‘em up.

With the top of the order now batting, Cover Boy Dennis walked on five pitches pushing in Wook from third base for the game tying run. Next, Dave ‘Evy’ Everingham also walked forcing in Scottie for the go-ahead score. The inning ended with a pop-up and groundout, but two runs scored. After two innings: Buzzards 3, Mudvillers 2.

The Buzzards threatened in the third and scored two more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Donut led-off with a single to left and then stole second before Dennis tripled to the left field fence knocking in the run. LBH then scored from third on Welzy’s 2-2 pitch, two-out single to left field giving the Buzzards a little breathing room by making the score 5-2.

While, Moxie was holding down the Mudville boys to three hits after the second inning, the Buzzards continued to feast on Mudville’s young pitchers. The Mudville Niners changed pitchers in the fifth (Pat ‘Little Brother’ Taylor #29) and seventh inning (Eric ‘Big Brother’ Taylor #11), but the Gold Country gang continued to score in every inning.

In the bottom of the sixth, Wook opened the inning with another walk. Donut got the sacrifice bunt sign from the third base coach and executed it nicely putting Wookie at second. The Baron then singled to right field on a 3-2 pitch putting runners at the corners. Cover Boy then hit a grounder to the right side allowing Wookie to score from third base to make the score 6-3.

Meanwhile, Ol’ Moxie was working the Mudville Nine batters. After the second inning, the Niners couldn’t muster a rally and the number of batters per inning went like this: 3rd – 4, 4th – 4, 5th – 3, 6th – 3, 7th – 4. Good job Steigelpuss and welcome back from your two week vacation.

With the score 6-3 and 40 minutes left, the Ol’ Buzzards wanted to finish off these young wipper-snappers early. By scoring five runs in the last of the seventh, the 10-run mercy rule was applied at 12-2. The inning started with a five-pitch walk to Welzy. T-Welz then stole second before Woody singled sharply to center. On the hit, Taylor rounded third and headed for home, but a great throw from the outfield nailed him in a bumping shoulders play at the plate with the catcher holding the ball. The Baron, coaching third, probably should have held him with no outs, but T-Welz does have some jets on those wheels and usually finds a way to get to his destination safely.

Batting next, anxious Fred ‘Freddie’ O’ Donoghue, swung and fouled off three pitches – one appearing to hit him between the numbers on the back – before belting a long double to left-center scoring Woody from first base. Ol’ Freddie wanted to swing in that last at-bat and did not want to take a hit-by-pitch, so it was nice to see the big hit. With two outs, Mike ‘Bake’ Baker walked followed by a base on balls to Don ‘Redondo’ Colbert to load up the bases for Wookie. Ol’ Wook then hit a slow, multi bouncer to the right side and hustled his way down the line. The second baseman got to the ball and threw to the bag in what was going to be a bang-bang play at first. The first baseman pulled his foot a half-beat too early, though, to make it appear the third out was made. The umpire saw the pulled foot and called Wook safe as a run crossed the plate.

Donut, batting next and left-handed, scorched a double into the left-center field gap scoring Bake and Redondo and putting runners at second and third. With the score 11-2 and two outs, the Baron hit the first pitch for a single to left field driving in Wook from third to finish off the Mudville Nine with the mercy rule in seven innings, 12-2. The game ran 2 hours 45 minutes, so it was not a short seven-inning game, but the extra rest between games will help and beating those young, cocky rascals felt real good.

Ol’ Steigy pitched a heck of a game against a team that scored 30 runs last Sunday. He threw 105 pitches (73 strikes & 32 balls) to 29 Niners giving up one earned run on seven hits with one walk and seven strikeouts. Terrific game.

The Buzzard defense played well with lots of ground ball outs and two infield pop-ups and only two fly ball outs in the seven inning game. With nine infield assists and one unassisted grounder at first, Bake had a field day with 10 put-outs. The Ol’ Buzzard offense was strong against the three different Mudville pitchers. A good team effort at the plate resulted in 15 hits, always a good number of hits for a Buzzard game. The hit club included Bake, Freddie, Goose, and Wook with one each; Baron, Cover Boy, Welzy and Woody with two hits; and Donut with three solid base hits (two from the right side and one batting left-handed). Next week Donut shows off some more and does it blind folded. The RBI’s were knocked in by a flock of Buzzards: Bake-1, Baron-1, Evy-1, Freddie-1, Wook-1, Donut-2, Welzy-2, and LBH-3. Great job with the sticks ya Ol’ Buzzards.

Nice win against the young Mudvillers. The victorious team got to rest on its laurels between games - for about 1½ hours. The Gold Country Miners played their morning game (9:30 am) in Citrus Heights against the Reds at C Bar C Park before heading up to Auburn to play the radio game at 2:30. The Miners did beat the Reds 14-4.

The Ol’ Buzzards like their meat smoked before devouring it. The Buzzard volunteer meat-smokers, Jim ‘Wags’ Wagner and Goose needed to run home, not home run, between games and make sure their pork shoulders and tri-tips were getting ready. The rest of the team sought shade and had a bite to eat. The radio station showed up around 2 o’clock and the second game warm-ups were beginning to stir the relaxed Ol’ Buzzards. Next on the Buzzard menu was Miner meat.

Gold Country Ol’ Buzzards Game Report #14

Game #2: July 24, 2011

Buzzards defeat Miners in Gold Country contest, 9-3

With KAHI radio station plugged in and the Gold Country teams ready to do battle, the annual radio game was on. Dave Rosenthal, the weekday afternoon radio show host for KAHI, was the play-by-play announcer. Special guest commentator for the game was our own Tony ‘Goose’ Brashear. Starting pitchers for this Gold Country match were right-handers Scott Yates #28 for the Miners and Mark ‘Weeder’ Fowler #11 for the Buzzards. The Miners were the home team on the schedule.

The Buzzards jumped on top in the first inning. Dennis ‘Little Ball of Hate’ Viegas started the game with a fly ball to left field that was dropped putting LBH on first. Dave ‘Evy’ Everingham followed with a seven-pitch walk. One out later, Bob ‘Woody’ Wooden walked on eight pitches to load ‘em up early. With Charles ‘CJ’ Jackson at the plate, Yates uncorked a wild pitch on the first throw that scored LBH from third with the rest of the runners advancing a base. CJ then lofted the 1-0 pitch to deep left field scoring Evy from third. Tony ‘Goose’ Brashear then hit a liner to left field that looked and sounded like a hit leaving the bat, but damn those pesky fielders, it was caught on the run to end the inning.

The Miners tacked a run on the scoreboard in the second inning. After Alton Cooper’s fly ball was dropped in right field, he stole second base and moved to third on the throw. With one out, Yates hit a screaming one-hopper to Evy’s right. Dave back-handed the hard hit ball and fell backwards on his tushy before hopping up for the throw to first. The runner was safe on the terrific and close play - with ESPN music heard in the background - as their first run scored. Nice play Evy, but a better padded butt may have helped on a quicker bounce-up.

The Ol’ Buzzards scored two more runs in the third. Cover Boy Viegas led-off with a walk and stole second base. Next, Evy hit a 1-1 pitch into left field for a single scoring LBH. With one out on a diving catch of a Welzy liner to right field, Bob ‘Woody’ Wooden smashed a run-scoring single to left field making the score 4-1 Buzzards.

The Buzzards scored next in their half of the sixth inning. With one out and on his first pitch, CJ hit a towering double to center field. Tony ‘Goose’ Brashear then put the microphone down long enough to knock in Charles from second base with a long single to left. The Buzzards were now up by four runs.

A Miners’ rally gained two runs in the bottom of the sixth to tighten the game. Terry ‘Caveman’ Kelley started it off with one-out single to center. Caveman stole second base and then third base within a couple of pitches to put a Miner at third with only one out. The next batter, Nicholson, singled up the middle scoring Kelley. Nick eventually scored on a stolen base, throwing error and a two-out single by Cooper. Score after six was 5-3.

The game stayed close until the eighth inning when the Ol’ Buzzards put a four on the scoreboard. T-Welz started it off with a one-out base hit to center field. Woody then limped to the plate after tweaking his right knee in the previous inning on a nice running catch in center field, looking into the sinking sun, to end the Miner rally at two runs. Bobio then launched the first pitch to deep left field. The ball bounced once on the warning track before going over the fence for a ground-rule double, allowing Woody to coast into second before being replaced for a runner. CJ was then walked on four pitches putting runners at first and second.

Next, the by now radio personality, Goose Brashear, again put down the microphone and headset to come to the plate. For the fan club in matching Brashear jerseys, the highlight was probably Goose’s hit down the third base line for a very, very long single scoring two big runs. Dan ‘Wookie’ Wukmir followed with a base on balls. Batting next was the first game winning pitcher, Jim ‘Moxie’ Steiger. Moxie, ironically, was then hit by a 2-1 curve ball on his foot. With the bases loaded, Mike ‘Bake’ Baker stepped into the batter’s box. Bake lined the first pitch into left field scoring the final two runs of the game. The score after eight complete innings was 9-3 with five minutes left in the 3-hour time limit, so, the ninth inning began.

The Buzzards have not had the best of luck in the ninth inning this season, but today neither team scored in the last inning. So, the final score was 9-3 Buzzards for the second win of the day.

Buzzard pitching was excellent. Weeder threw the first six innings for the win and Welzy finished the game with a save. Mark faced 26 Miners while throwing 98 pitches (62 strikes & 36 balls). The other gold country team got one earned run on six hits and one walk with two hit batters while striking out three times. Taylor went three innings to finish the game by facing only 11 batters. Welzy threw 33 pitches with 18 strikes and 15 balls in giving up no runs on one hit and a walk. Great pitching, good defense and 13 hits will usually get a win.

With only three strike outs in this nine inning game, there were plenty of fielding opportunities. The infield made their plays and four out of the five fly balls were caught. Only Alton ‘Fire Plug’ Cooper gave the Buzzards a hard time by getting on base all four times – three hits. His stumbling score, missing home plate, and crawling back to slap his hand on the plate in the second inning was pretty funny and was mentioned several times on the radio.

The Ol’ Buzzard offense was primed today. 15 hits in the first game and 13 hits in the second game was just what the doctor ordered. The hit club for game two was Bake, Baron, CJ, Welzy and Wookie with one hit each; and Evy, Goose, Steigy and Woody with two hits. The ribbies were courtesy of Evy and Woody with one; Bake and CJ had two; and radio personality Tony B muscled in three. The twin wins bring the season record to 9-4-1 and second place in the 45+AA Division.

It was a great day to be a Buzzard. These were two big wins that were a team effort – defense and offense – and it puts the Buzzards in good shape in the standings. And we got to feast on fabulous smoked pork shoulders and tri-tips with side fixings and cold drinks. Mucho gracias to Wags and Tony for smoking up some fabulous pork and tri-tip. The side fixings were good, but the meat, wow, really made that after-game bbq special.

Both gold country teams were enjoying the early stages of the bbq, when CJ’s chest began to tighten-up. That feeling did not go away and he said it also felt like his heart was slowing down, so 9-1-1 was called. Several minutes later an ambulance, fire truck and police arrived on scene – a slow evening in Auburn. The paramedics talked to him for awhile and then hooked him up with lots of wires and got an IV ready before closing the back doors and transporting him down to Kaiser-Roseville. Charles was released from the hospital around midnight and Ray ‘Bull Dog’ Henry graciously picked him up and then took him to Wags’ house to get CJ’s red Bronco. Jim and sons had taken CJ’s car earlier from the park to their place nearby for safe-keeping.

Buzzard Note #1: There are five regular season games to play in the next four weeks. We have tough competition for every game. The schedule dates and opponents are (times and fields to be announced later): 7/31 at Reds on Mahany Park at 10 am; 8/7 Dodgers at Buzzards on James Field; 8/14 (split double-header) a.m. game Bulldogs at Buzzards on James Field, with the p.m. game at Free Agents field; and 8/21 Valley Cats at Buzzards on James Field.

Buzzard Note #2: The critical single-elimination playoff game will be August 28. Please mark your calendars.

Buzzard Note #3: CD copies of the radio broadcast will be available for those that want them. Thanks for your cooperation with the bios and the extra family and friends that came to the radio game. KAHI enjoyed the event and everything seemed to go pretty smoothly. We will have to wait for the Nielsen Ratings next month to see if Tony B, as the game analyst and color commentator, increased the ratings from last year.

Buzzard Note #4: One more shout-out to Wags and Tony for the cost, preparation and smoking of some tasty meat for the team bbq.

Gold Country Ol’ Buzzards Game Report #12

 Game: July 17, 2011

Cats scratch Buzzards early in loss, 11-1

A small gathering of Buzzards made their way to Elk Grove on Sunday morning to take on the first place, Valley Cats, on their home turf. The whinny Cats play their home games on Greg Vaughn Field at Bradshaw Christian High. The field was nice but it was also over rated and over watered. The nearby swamp, behind the third base dugout, eats a lot of foul balls, so the teams go through too many good baseballs during a game. The school is in the middle of nowhere and does not have any nearby structures or large trees, so the wind just races through that part of Elk Grove. Always fun to add wind and no back ground to a baseball game.

With vacations and other family priorities the team had in mid-July, it left just 10 Buzzards to play this game. We beat the Dragons last week with 11, so we knew it could be done, and we all like the extra playing time, but 10 is cutting it pretty close. Leading the charge and starting for the Buzzards on the hill was righty Mark ‘Weeder’ Fowler #11, while the Valley Cats countered with their ‘head case’ right-hander, Dave ‘Nut Job’ Nutter #12.

The Buzzards threatened in the top half of the first inning when Dennis ‘Cover Boy’ Viegas led off with a grounder to short that was bobbled putting speedy Cover Boy on first base. A couple of pitches later Dennis stole second and then advanced to third on a wild pitch. With one out, Taylor ‘Welzy’ Welz walked on five pitches and then stole second putting runners at second and third with one out. However, the next two batters struck out stranding the potential runs. Nut Job struck out the side, but two were called-out looking at pitches clearly outside the strike zone. This pattern would be continued with a terrible strike zone for Buzzards all game long. Nutter enjoyed the strike zone and benefitted by striking out a third of the defensive outs needed today with 70% a called strike three. An un f-ing believable statistic and a bad omen for this game.

The strike zone didn’t quite seem the same. Weeder pretty much had to groove pitches to get the strike call. Six of the seven feral Cat strike-outs were swinging. The Buzzards struck-out seven times with five called Ks. With Weeder needing to groove pitches to a good hitting team, it was going to be a tough day at the ball park.

The Valley Cats scored two runs in their half of the first inning. A one-out walk to Craig Parker was followed by a 0-2 curve ball that Vance Pascula lined off the left field fence – near the top – putting runners at second and third. The clean-up hitter, lefty Mike Lehtola, then hit a tricky hopper in the hole at short that Dave ‘Evy’ Everingham gloved then hurried the throw home for a close play at the plate. The low throw bounced away from the catcher and rolled to the deep back stop as both runners crossed the plate.

In the top of the second inning with two outs, the only Buzzard runner, Dan ‘Wookie’ Wukmir – on via an error by the shortstop – took off for second base with two strikes on Scott ‘Donut’ Reeves. The throw to second was high and wide and it looked like Wookie easily slid under a high phantom tag as the second baseman stumbled over him with feet and legs colliding. However, really old man ump, Jim, from his lousy angle on the infield called an out. So far, no bounces or calls going our way, maybe later.

Things continued to roll nicely for the still whinny Cats in the bottom of the second inning. The first batter struck out on five pitches, the second batter singled but was then thrown out at second base on a pitch-out called by Dennis and a strike to Wook covering the bag for the tag out. So with two outs and no one on, the following horror sequence took place: single, double, walk, double, single, single, double, walk, single, walk, fly out to Donut in left field. Un f-ing believable. Twilight zone theme music was reportedly heard on the field. It sure felt like it. For a while every batter was invincible. After the two quick outs, the feral Cats scored seven runs on eight hits with three walks. And it was only the second inning but the score was 9-0 Cats.

Cats’ pitcher, Nutter, cut down every rally attempt in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th innings. In the 4th and 5th innings, the Buzzards hit into a 6-4-3 double play to halt rallies. The Valley Cats did make some outstanding catches especially in left field. The leaping and back-handed catches on the run by tall John Vidal in deep left field on two drives by Pete ‘Baron’ Von Zboray in the 2nd and 7th innings, plus his remarkable catch of Charles ‘CJ’ Jackson’s smash in the 7th inning definitely helped hold the score down.

The Buzzard defense played well, but the offense struggled with the large moving strike zone and tough hitting background at this field. The Buzzard’s had only three hits in scoring one run. Hard to win a game with those offensive stats. The hits came from Dennis, Bob ‘Woody’ Wooden and Tony ‘Mongoose’ Brashear.

The team did take an injury hit during the game. Dennis fractured his left thumb behind the plate and finished the game, but it looked ugly afterward. Cover Boy will not be able to catch for a while. Ouch. The season record is now 7-4-1 and we are in third place behind the Valley Cats and Free Agents with the Dragons on our heals, one-half game back in the standings. This Sunday we have a double-header. The first game will be at 10 am at James Field against the Mudville Nine (6-3-1). Last week the Mudville Nine beat the Astros 30-4. The second game will start when the radio station, KAHI 950 AM, is set - probably about 2:30 at James Field against the Gold Country Miners.